Chapter 352. I Am Explosion.
Because there had been a first day, the second day came.
When the Four Great Evils said they would leave for Baengeungji early in the morning, Cheonak came out before his quarters and looked at the three of them.
As Cheonak looked on without a word, the Lecherous Demon said,
“Senior, then we will be on our way.”
Cheonak nodded, then looked at the Sword Demon.
“Sword Demon.”
My eldest brother nodded.
“Speak.”
“I remembered all along the sobriquet of the man who said he had run out of the Cult on his own. Even if I had been in the same situation, I would have done the same. Go carefully.”
The Sword Demon looked at Cheonak, then smiled.
“I’ll be going.”
I looked at each of the Four Great Evils in turn, and let that stand in place of words of farewell.
As soon as the three left Gangcheol’s mountain villa, Cheonak sat down on the low cot in the training yard, repeatedly clenching and opening his fist as he called to me.
“Sect Leader, come here and sit.”
I sat on the ground across from Cheonak. We had not even eaten breakfast yet, but Cheonak showed off the size of his fist to me, then opened his palm.
“There is a part of the body where external arts and internal energy can be brought forth in the greatest harmony.”
I only listened in silence.
Cheonak showed me his huge hand and asked,
“Where is it?”
Since he was showing me his hand, the hand itself was not the answer.
“The center of the palm?”
Somehow, it felt like too easy an answer, so I had a feeling it would not be correct.
Cheonak said,
“The center of the palm is not exactly wrong, but at your level, not yet. The moment internal energy and external arts blend together most perfectly…”
Cheonak gave me time to think. For a moment, I felt strange and could not answer easily, but no matter how I turned it over in my head, there was only one answer.
“The middle finger?”
Cheonak looked at me.
“Why the middle finger? Explain.”
Would I get beaten for saying what I thought for no reason? Since even I thought the answer was strange, I hesitated slightly.
Cheonak said,
“It does not matter if you are wrong.”
I cleared my throat, then answered.
“…Well, when you flick someone on the forehead, the middle finger is the strongest, isn’t it?”
“Mm.”
He glared at me as if a tiger were challenging me to a staring contest, but I did not avoid his gaze.
To think I was talking about finger flicks to one of the strongest men in the jianghu…
Just as I was thinking that I truly had no plan, Cheonak continued.
“Correct.”
“Wh-what?”
“I said that is the answer.”
“No, how is a finger flick the answer?”
Cheonak showed me his fingers and explained.
“The answer is already all contained in what you said. I told you yesterday that there is a point where internal energy and external arts combine and explode.”
“You did.”
“For one who has not trained deeply, the part that can produce the greatest explosive power, at best, is the middle finger alone. Think about it. Using a finger flick with the little finger, using it with the ring finger, and the same goes for the index finger and thumb. The destructive power of the middle finger has the slightest edge.”
“Mm?”
“Suppose you could land exactly one attack on an enemy with a finger. What would you strike with? This differs from person to person. Someone’s middle finger may have been cut off in a fight, so for such a person it would be the index or ring finger.”
“True.”
“When you fill the middle finger with internal energy and strike in the form of the finger flick you mentioned, the single blow of the Finger Flicking Art spoken of by various sects will be unleashed. Look at these five fingers. Though the difference in length is not that great, when a focused-point attack is executed, the middle finger is the strongest. Whether this is coincidence or not, the middle finger is a completed form.”
“……”
“I do not know what harmony lies in the thickness and length of the middle finger, but it means that it is the most suitable state, and the most suitable body part, for combining the external arts and internal energy I speak of. Usually, the thumb restrains the middle finger’s advance for a moment, then power and internal energy are compressed and made to explode in an instant. Do you understand this much?”
“I understand. It’s something I’ve always done.”
“Then, if you expand this way of thinking to the entire body…”
“Mm.”
“It means the rest of the body is not prepared to combine external arts and internal energy.”
“Ah, then does that mean only the middle finger is barely capable of it?”
“Something like that. Since they have not practiced it, they cannot train it; and since they have not trained it, they cannot apply it in battle either. It means the majority use this explosive power only by limiting it to the middle finger. If you combine the explosive power of the palm center you mentioned with external arts, could it catch up to the level of completion of the Finger Flicking Art that uses the middle finger? I am not simply talking about the force of impact. I mean in terms of combination.”
I spent a moment organizing Cheonak’s words.
In other words, I considered what method I would use if I had to smash a huge boulder with my finger using internal energy and external arts. Smashing it by stabbing with a finger carried a high risk of injury. Of course, I could break a boulder with a fist or palm force.
But what Cheonak wanted to say was this.
The degree of completion in an attack where internal energy and external arts meshed together harmoniously.
He was talking about focusing on a single point without excess and making it explode.
It meant an exceedingly brief striking point that surpassed using only internal energy or only external arts.
Like executing the Finger Flicking Art with the middle finger…
It meant I had to raise the degree of completion in attacks executed using other parts of the body as well.
At that moment, Habok came out from the quarters and waited with both hands gathered before him.
When Cheonak looked at him, only then did Habok open his mouth.
“I have prepared the meal.”
Cheonak answered,
“Bring me two stones the size of a head.”
“Yes.”
Habok swiftly ran off somewhere, then soon brought back large stones and set them down before Cheonak.
Cheonak grasped a stone with his left hand, then hooked the middle finger of his right hand against his thumb.
It was the Finger Flicking Art.
As the thumb blocked the middle finger’s advance for a moment, the nail of the middle finger turned white. Cheonak compressed his power, and when he allowed the middle finger to advance, the stone shattered with a sharp crack.
Cheonak looked at me.
“At close range, the advance of a fist or palm can be predicted by the movements of the arm and shoulder, but the middle finger’s path is hard to follow with the eyes. This means even its speed and trajectory are ideal. Smash it.”
I grasped a stone of the same size with my left hand, then infused the middle finger with the qi of the Wood Realm. After drawing my finger back for a moment, I gauged the force carried by the index, ring, and little fingers. The middle finger definitely felt the most stable, and also the one on which the most power could be loaded.
I injected internal energy, then struck the stone with the Finger Flicking Art.
With a thud, the stone split, but the fragments were larger than those of the one Cheonak had broken. While Cheonak’s had shattered into tiny pieces, mine felt as though it had split into three or four chunks.
Only then did Cheonak ask Habok.
“What’s for breakfast?”
“Chicken. Ah, and Manor Lord, I’ll go do some shopping right away.”
“Go on.”
“Yes.”
Cheonak got to his feet and nudged me where I sat with his foot.
“Let’s go. To eat chicken.”
“Senior, is it really possible to expand the sensation of a middle-finger strike through the entire body? It’s too difficult.”
“It is because it is difficult that one trains. If it were easy, why would anyone pick up lumps of iron and make such a damned fuss?”
“That’s true.”
“Only after you understand the concept first does the purpose of training external arts become clear.”
Even as we went to eat chicken, Cheonak continued his explanation.
“The goal is not simply to increase strength. The middle finger is, in itself, a perfect bowstring. You are making the other parts of the body the same way. Elasticity, the proper thickness, repeated training of the path of movement, striking power, even confirming how it feels when internal energy is contained within it. All of this is driven into a single point…… and then it explodes. In other words, you are training the process by which the assorted martial arts you have already learned are drawn upon the bowstring that is external art and shoot forth to pierce the target.”
“Wow…… ha.”
I unconsciously scratched my nose.
It struck me as a simple yet tremendous martial study.
At the same time, it was also a martial study I could understand only because I had already learned various martial arts, accumulated internal energy, and trained my external arts to some extent.
External arts served as the bowstring?
Who on earth could properly learn such a martial study? It was so profound that it would not be strange if ordinary masters merely nodded a few times without understanding Cheonak’s words, then got beaten to death.
Cheonak was beside me, but as I thought it over and over, I muttered as if to myself.
“That’s incredible.”
I had originally thought of myself as someone who placed considerable importance on external arts, but Cheonak’s approach to and understanding of external arts were on an entirely deeper level than mine. It felt as though I had met an expert in something I myself valued, so the impression was bound to be extraordinary…….
When we went inside…….
That Baek bastard, his face bruised here and there, was busily stuffing himself with chicken.
“You startled me.”
I looked at the table and saw that it was one person, one chicken. I stared at the chicken baeksuk placed before me and was more than a little surprised.
I had wondered how a chick could turn into a steel turtle…….
Wasn’t I going through that very process right now?
Giseongja had a hobby of training fighting chickens, and a strange thought occurred to me that perhaps this was why he had broken through to the realm of the Golden Turtle.
Eating chicken for the second day at the Iron Manor gave me a peculiar feeling. On top of that, beside me was the man who had secretly given me the Geumgu Soyo Gong in my previous life, and he was eating chicken with relish, making me feel even stranger.
Why was my life so dramatic?
The White-Robed Scholar spoke while diligently sucking on a chicken leg.
“Habok said he was going shopping.”
“I heard.”
The White-Robed Scholar stirred the broth of his chicken baeksuk with his chopsticks and said,
“There aren’t any jujubes today.”
As soon as I found a jujube while scooping up my chicken baeksuk, I pressed it down with my chopsticks and hid it.
“…….”
The White-Robed Scholar asked Cheonak,
“If he went shopping, will he be back by lunchtime?”
“His lightness skill has improved, so he should be back.”
The White-Robed Scholar said with a laugh,
“The Sword Demon really is a stubborn man. Leaving without even eating breakfast. He may come from the Demonic Cult, but the way he thinks has the air of a righteous sect leader.”
Cheonak ate his chicken baeksuk without a word.
I picked up the bowl with both hands, then poured the broth, ginseng root, chicken, and jujube into my mouth and chewed them all down.
Cheonak said,
“Even if you teach external arts, not just anyone can follow along. Look at this one.”
“This one” was, of course, the White-Robed Scholar.
“He is lazy by nature and cannot endure training.”
The White-Robed Scholar corrected Cheonak’s words.
“It isn’t that I can’t endure it; I’m simply going in a different direction. With your method, a person could die while training.”
Was this what it felt like to have a chicken bone stuck in your throat?
In any case, the three of us polished off the chicken baeksuk. Thinking about it, we had only just eaten breakfast. I had an ominous feeling that the second day had not even begun yet.
The person who would die while training was not me.
The White-Robed Scholar, somehow looking far more pleased than yesterday, stood up and looked down at me with a strange gaze.
“Suffer a little. This is a martial study you can’t learn anywhere else. It’s a fortuitous encounter, a fortuitous encounter. You should be grateful. Indeed, the Sect Leader is truly lucky.”
I could feel the chicken sloshing around in my stomach when Cheonak stood up.
“Let’s go out.”
I condensed every bit of my anger and spat out one word.
“Already?”
“You need to digest. Let us go for a walk.”
“Ah, what a relief. A walk sounds good.”
As I was about to go outside, the sight of the White-Robed Scholar snickering kept bothering me.
As soon as I finished eating, I went for a walk with a tiger. It seemed like there hadn’t originally been any mountain paths, but perhaps because Cheonak had traveled there countless times, small trails stretched here and there. After roughly repeating the process of descending and climbing the ridges, I heard the sound of a waterfall from somewhere.
“There’s a waterfall?”
As Cheonak headed toward a fairly large waterfall, he said,
“What did I say external arts are?”
“The bowstring, I suppose.”
“Then what is the arrow?”
“Us, I would think. The body itself.”
“Can you see the path I am speaking of, to some extent?”
In front of the waterfall, Cheonak suddenly stripped off his upper garment and looked at me. Since I definitely felt I understood something, I nodded.
“I think I can see it. This is another realm. It is a gap in martial study that many masters have not paid attention to, and also the essence of martial study. According to the Sword Demon’s expression, it looks like the first martial art.”
“The first martial art…….”
Cheonak soon entered the water, crossed the dragon pool, and stepped into the falling stream that crashed down like a thunderbolt.
Watching him like this, there truly was no madman quite like him.
‘Why is he going in there? Seriously.’
Cheonak was looking at me while receiving the pouring waterfall on the crown of his head.
“Sect Leader.”
“Speak.”
“If you are to learn anything from me, at the very least, you must be able to do this perfectly. I am an arrow that surges upstream against the current.”
“…….”
I watched Cheonak with my eyes wide open.
Cheonak crouched slightly within the waterfall, then shot upward toward the pouring cascade.
Shwaaaaaaaaak!
Cheonak, who had broken through the pouring torrent with his whole body, had already risen as if soaring above the waterfall. The waterfall that had been plunging straight down scattered as if throwing a wild fit. It looked like a mad tiger seized by frenzy and running rampant, and at the same time like seeing a dragon ascend to the heavens with my own two eyes. Having pierced through the long waterfall in a single burst and surged even higher, Cheonak reached the right side of the waterfall and looked at me.
“Come up.”
At those words, telling me to come up, the strength left my legs for a moment and I fell on my backside.
“…….”
“You would do well to come up before I beat you to death. It is fine even if you fail. Think of it as gauging the total of your external arts and internal energy.”
I looked at Cheonak.
“You should at least tell me how.”
“Did I not tell you? It is an explosion of internal energy and external arts. A bowstring. An arrow, and an explosion.”
It was damn ridiculous that a string of utterly meaningless words sounded meaningful to me.
“I see. I understand.”
I stripped off my upper garment, then leapt over the plunge pool and entered the waterfall. The pouring cascade battered my entire body. It was so absurd that laughter came out on its own.
I crouched down, planted one fist on the ground, and focused my internal energy and external arts into my lower body.
Toward the waterfall, I exploded upward, as if wringing every bit of internal energy and external power from my whole body.
I am an explosion.
I am the bowstring, and at the same time, the arrow.
I surged upward, tearing through the rough torrent pouring down.
Strangely, it did not feel bad, but……
...for now, it was not even close.